Paphos appoints new interim municipal secretary

Anastasia Routi-Eleftheriadi was on Monday appointed as the Paphos municipality’s interim municipal secretary as the town’s council returns to work following the suspension of mayor Phedonas Phedonos last week.

Routi-Eleftheriadi was nominated by acting mayor Angelos Onisiforou, and won the votes of 11 council members.

Ten councillors voted for the position to be filled on a rotating basis until a permanent replacement for the retiring Themis Philippides is found, and two voted for the municipality’s financial department director Constantinos Christoforou.

The vote comes after local news website PafosNet had reported that the interior ministry is “concerned” that 72-year-old Philippides continued to perform his duties after being placed on pre-retirement leave last year.

The interior ministry’s director of local government affairs Antonis Economides had on Friday said that Philippides “should have been removed from his duties two weeks ago and taken his leave cumulatively”.

However, he said, the ministry “should now investigate whether during that two-week period, Philippides went to his office at the municipal building and performed the duties of municipal secretary when he should not have and signed any documents”.

He said that any documents Philippides may have signed during that period would be considered invalid.

The investigation comes after Phedonos had written to the interior ministry in January, requesting that Philippides be allowed to remain in post “for some more time”.

Phedonos was formally removed from his role on Thursday last week, having been accused of domestic abuse and rape.

His suspension will end either when legal proceedings regarding the allegations levelled against him have concluded. If he then returns to their duties, he will be entitled to their full amount of the salaries they had lost during his suspension.

Allegations of rape against Phedonos resurfaced last week, when Paphos-based land developer Theodoros Aristodemou, of Aristo Developers, accused him of committing the crime around ten years ago, before giving a statement to the police.

The domestic abuse allegations, meanwhile, surfaced after social media personality Ioanna Fotiou, better known by her alias Annie Alexui, claimed to hold documents from the related to admissions of Phedonos’ wife Louiza Andreou to the Nicosia general hospital in 2017, which stated that she had been “beaten” by Phedonos.

Andreou has vehemently denied all accusations made against her husband, writing in a post on social media that “my family is being subjected to a coordinated attack”.